NES 25th Anniversary – Some Memories

Do you know what today is? It just happens to be the 25th Anniversary of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in North America.

You’d be forgiven for forgetting. After all, it’s hard to believe that it has been twenty-five years already. Odds are you’re too busy these days with more important things than your old gray and black buddy. He would have wanted you to be happy.

Okay, that’s a bit melodramatic.

But still, 25 years, WOW. Given the occasion I thought I’d share some NES-era memories.

Although the NES was released on October 18, 1985 in North America, initially it was only available in test markets like New York City. It wasn’t until the Christmas of 1987 that I actually got one of my own. I knew several kids who already had one, but it’s not the same as having yours. You could play yours anytime you wanted, even if it was two in the morning. Believe me, that happened many times.

My family got the Deluxe Set bundle that came with two games, Duck Hunt and Gyromite. Yes, I got R.O.B. the robot. I played Gyromite for a grand total of twenty minutes and then old R.O.B. promptly ended up on the shelf. I don’t actually remember getting rid of him, but for some reason I can’t find him now. Maybe he didn’t like me either and he left quietly in the night. Some people think of R.O.B. as a classic Nintendo character, but he only worked with two games so his usefulness was limited.

The light zapper and Duck Hunt on the other hand were awesome. It was the perfect game to pack in with the system since anybody could easily learn how to play it. Even my sisters who don’t play games still have fond memories of playing Duck Hunt. The laughing dog was just icing on the cake. Now there’s a Nintendo character who needs to make a reappearance.

Like most people, it was Super Mario Bros. that first blew me away. This was before the Saturday morning cartoon and the breakfast cereal, but you could already tell it was becoming a pop-culture phenomenon. The now iconic songs would ring in my head for hours after playing and I would daydream during school about the tactics I was going to use as soon as I got home. Every time I got sick I had Mario waiting to make me feel better.

Speaking of Mario, I’ll never forget the first time I played Super Mario Bros. 2 and wondered “What the heck is this?”. Why was I picking vegtables and fighting birds who shot eggs out of their mouth? I eventually grew to appreciate it, but man was it a shocking departure from what I was used to. Same thing goes for The Legend of Zelda II: Link’s Adventure.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that the games on the NES were much deeper than anything I’d played before. Until that time, most games were based on the arcade model: make the experience as quick as possible so that arcade owners could earn more money. Game life was purposely short and only another quarter could make it last longer.

Games like Metroid and The Legend of Zelda changed that. They were lengthy, adventure games that took many afternoons to finish. The Zelda cartridge even had a battery inside to save your game which was unheard of at the time. That and the shiny gold cartridge blew my 12 year old mind.

Those games also had a plot. Nobody bothered to ask why Pac-Man was eating all those dots in the arcades? I still don’t know. In The Legend of Zelda you had a clear purpose, rescue princess Zelda and defeat the evil Ganon. Those early NES adventure games opened the door for the narrative driven titles we play today. 

Because of the success of the NES, Nintendo was synonymous with video games for the better part of a decade. People would ask “do you want to play Nintendo?” in the same way that people ask for a Kleenex. No disrespect to the Sega Master System, I owned and loved that too, but there was no mistaking who was the king of the family room.

One of my favorite things about the NES era was the camaraderie that developed between friends because of it. Since there was no Internet and few gaming magazines, people had to share their secrets and tips with each other. For example, I’ll be able to recite the Konami code until the day I die but I can’t remember where I learned it from. Information like that just spread between friends. There was always some dude who would call the Nintendo 900-line and then tell everybody else what they needed to do. I remember calling once myself on a Friday night asking for help with The Legend of Zelda and the guy said “I’m not allowed to tell you that”. Really? Like there was a code of ethics amongst the Nintendo Pros at the call center. Worst three bucks I ever spent.

It’s remarkable that so many major franchises that still exist were born on the NES. Super Mario Bros., Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, Dragon Quest, Castlevania, Metal Gear, Mega Man, Final Fantasy. I’m sure I missed a few more. It’s impossible to imagine what gaming would look like today without the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Besides the obvious classics there were also a lot of hidden gems in the NES line-up. I spent countless hours with games like Blaster Master, Duck Tales, City Connection, and Wizards & Warriors II. Also, I’m sure I have permanent eye damage from wearing the 3D glasses so long while playing Rad Racer. One of the best feelings was renting some weird looking game from the video store and then finding out how great or not great it was.

I still have my NES, as you can see from the picture above. I don’t play it anymore and it’s stored in a closet, but I never could part with it. I feel a strange loyalty to this piece of plastic that was so good to me. Thanks to the Virtual Console on the Wii, I still have access to most of the NES library if I want to play them. Surprisingly most of the games still hold up thanks to the simple yet spot on gameplay.

I apologize if this reads like a history lesson, but I had so much fun remembering the great times I had with the NES. If it wasn’t for that little console my childhood would have been incredibly boring. I certainly wouldn’t have a website about video games today.

Thank you Nintendo.

So, what are your favorite NES memories? Feel free to leave them in the comments section, I’d love to hear them.